Torchwood: Darkness Falls
by Maria Patenaude
Summary: At Torchwood, nothing is ever quite what it seems. The Darkness is coming... but without it, who of us would ever truly appreciate the Light? Part 5 of 5.
1. Chapter 1

**Part 5 of this fanfic (specifically "Darkness Falls") was written after the Torchwood Season 2 finale, during the final episodes of Doctor Who Season 4, and pre Children of Earth. It is a diligently-researched work of love that I never intended to make public; I began it for my own enjoyment, and continued it out of love, and as a means of coping with some of the grief left behind by TW Season 2. With that in mind, R&R, and I hope you enjoy!**

**I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have stayed with me this far. It took me an entire year to have the guts to make this fanfic public, and I never expected anyone to read it. So, muchísimas gracias, everyone! I hope this final volume, though short, is everything you expect and more.**

**Disclaimer: Torchwood and Doctor Who are franchises that don't belong to me. I simply like to visit their 'verse and play. **

**Primarily, what's not mine belongs to Russell T. Davies et al. of the current incarnation of the Whoniverse.**

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I am a child of Gallifrey. I have many names, but only one face.

My father has many faces, and yet only one name. The Doctor.

His true name is hidden. It is never to be spoken.

I am the Sage. The Seer. Miranda Small. Sage Smith. My true name is hidden, too. Only one man knows it because we met before the Fall. Aside from him, only my father. When he calls my name, I will go to him. I will have to, whether I'm ready to or not. We are the last of our kind, and blood calls to blood.

* * *

I have an unlucky name. It means darkness. I'm quite accustomed, after more than a century, to going by names other than my own. For many years I used my sister's name. My best friend goes by the name Jack Harkness, but that's a borrowed name as well. Even John Hart, the only man other than my father who knows my true name, is not really named Hart. As a child I called him Johnny, but he may have been lying even then. He lies often, and I don't always see it.

I hear names in my head sometimes. Rose Tyler. Romana. Ace. Sarah Jane Smith... Some of them my father mentioned at one time or another... some of them Jack met... the rest remain unexplained. Sally Sparrow. River Song. They're musical to me, yet strange. I've only met one of them. Martha Jones. She called me sister. I call her friend. Fate was not kind to my sisters, after all.

Rose Tyler... The Bad Wolf. Her name means Darkness, too.

She is near, and I can sense her. So near, in fact, that Ianto senses her, too.

Ianto Jones is far from ordinary; brave, steadfast, loyal, insightful, strong, and strong-willed; but he has no psychic powers. I allowed him a glimpse of the inner workings of my mind, and he saw more than we'd bargained for.

Something is coming. Something terrible. Rose has been fighting her way back to our universe, trying to find my father. She believes he's the only one who can save us. For all I know, she's right.

There has never quite been another Time Lord like my father. He's what's called an Individual; when Gallifrey still stood, he could shield his mind from the others. This is an ability I inherited from him, but that was never supposed to happen. Individuals were extremely rare, born once every thousand years. It may have had something to do with the mother I never knew. They say she only lived long enough to name me, and then my father gave me over to the Council, which raised me as an orphan, as I was motherless and my father had been exiled long before my birth. I suspect my mother wasn't Gallifreyan at all, but from Earth. It would explain why I was always treated differently, even differently from the other orphans, and why I was drawn to Earth at the start of the last great Time War.

My father loves me. I know he does, though he's never said it. He visited me as a child. He brought me books and trinkets. Above all, he made sure I received an education, even though the Council was opposed to it and often lax about it. They took no real interest in me until I passed Initiation at age eight. Gallifrey fell little more than six months later.

Dad had other children before me. He was married and had a son. He also raised Miranda, my sister from a parallel universe, as his own and protected her. I was the one he left behind, and I resent it. He must have had his reasons, but it pains me anyway because I love him quite dearly, in spite of everything. More than that... I admire him, in spite of feeling betrayed.

My youngest sister, Jenny, was born an adult and left behind quite by accident. Her very existence is a paradox, as she was bio-engineered from our father's DNA... the DNA being what pulled him to the planet Messaline to begin with. I was bound to this paradox by the Vortex, and it nearly killed me. Jenny herself died once, and as she didn't regenerate, she was left behind. A terraforming agent reacted with her Gallifreyan physiology and jump-started her hearts, but by then Dad had left. She doesn't seem to resent it, though. As far as I know she's out there galaxy-hopping; worlds to see, civilizations to save, and a lot of running.

That's what my father does. He runs. Runs to save us. Runs to leave us behind. Jack says they seem to be the same thing. He runs from us so we can learn to save ourselves from... ourselves.

I haven't told Jack that I saw Rose again. I probably should, but I don't want him to know about Ianto and the Vortex. It was risky. I could have killed him or driven him mad, and Jack loves Ianto more than he has words for. I love them both, myself.

I fear Rose Tyler. The Bad Wolf. The Life-Bringer who trapped Jack in a seemingly endless cycle of death and revival because she loved him too much to let him go. I love her as much as I fear her, though. I want to know her, this girl my father loves more than the Universe itself.

Though I fear it, I want to know the Darkness. My mother named me after it. Perhaps she saw it, too.

* * *

"I had a very strange dream," I told Ianto over coffee.

"What was it about?" he inquired distractedly, shuffling papers on his desk.

"The Darkness," I murmured. "My father was dead and no one could stop it. It was eating up the universe."

"What about you?" Ianto asked me, looking far more alert than he had mere seconds before. "Did you try to stop it?"

"I was human," I said softly. "With my father dead, Jack decided not to bring me into Torchwood. The world was in chaos. That replica of the Titanic that swooped low over Buckingham Palace; do you remember it?" He nodded. "It crashed. There was no one there to pull it back out of our atmosphere and London was vaporized."

Ianto frowned, getting that crease between his eyebrows that I normally found quite adorable. "And we were safe here in Cardiff, weren't we. What did _we_ do?"

"You blew yourselves up stopping the Sontarans," I admitted reluctantly. "Martha was long dead, had never met my father, and had never joined UNIT. Tosh and Owen were still dead, and I was human. You sacrificed yourselves for us... but it didn't stop the Darkness."

"Are you sure it was a dream?" he asked me tentatively.

"No," I sighed. "I'm not sure at all. It felt... wrong. It felt like a warning. Rose said to tell my father two words. Bad Wolf."

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know. Some sort of code? She called herself that when she took out the Daleks. Jack's seen it in graffiti for years. Other than that... I just don't know."

"But how could you tell your father if he was dead?"

"Paradox," I shrugged. "And it wasn't me she told. It was Donna Noble. Donna was at the centre of it all, not Rose."

"Are you going to tell Jack?"

I shook my head. "I don't think I should. He'd just worry. You'll be strong for him when it comes, won't you Ianto?"

"I'll do my best, considering I have no idea what 'it' is."

"My father will know," I said, but my insecurity came through in my voice.

"You don't think he can stop it," he guessed.

"Not without help, no."

"You're leaving, aren't you," Ianto said.

I opened my mouth to say no. Leaving wasn't my intention at all. I had meant to stand with them, with Torchwood, no matter the cost. In hindsight, I suppose that was rather selfish of me. At any rate, the word never passed my lips. At that moment, he spoke my name, and I had no choice but to go.

"Adria," John Hart said behind me. I stood, one lone tear coursing down my cheek.

I pulled my coat off the back of my chair and slung it over my shoulder. "Tell Jack I love him," I told Ianto.

"Why?" Ianto asked me. Why was I leaving? Why with _him_?

"I have to," I replied. "And I love you, too, Ianto Jones. Always know that," I told him, my voice breaking at the end. "Always."

"I don't understand," he said, looking angry and hurt.

"Neither do I," I admitted. "I just have to. Be safe."


	2. Chapter 2

"She left with _John_? Did she say where she was going? Did she say _why_?" Jack asked Ianto, gripping the edge of his desk tightly.

"She only said that you would know," Ianto managed, his voice constricted.

"Well, did John say anything?"

Ianto nodded. "A name."

"What name?" Jack pressed.

"Adria."

Jack slumped into his seat in shock. "Why now?" he whispered to himself.

"Jack? Who's Adria?" Ianto asked him, concerned and confused.

"_She_ is. Sage. It was her name before her initiation. Her _real_ name. Has to be. It's the only reason I can think of for her leaving that way. Did she take anything with her? Her suitcase, anything?"

"No," Ianto told him, "but John had her gun. Lots of guns, actually. He looked like he was setting out to war."

"He always does. She's the one that doesn't, not even in the middle of one... Ianto, she has to have said something else. Anything. Some sort of clue..." Jack pressed.

"There _was_ one thing..." Ianto ventured.

"What?"

"Bad Wolf."

"Shit," Jack winced.

"What does it mean?"

"Anything. Everything. Whatever it is, it's bad."

"You never knew her real name before, did you," Ianto asked him softly.

"She always said she could only reveal her true name if one of two things was happening," Jack said.

"What things?"

"Her wedding, or the end of the universe. So unless she's marrying John..."

"She told me to tell you that she loves you," Ianto stated, dismissing that option outright.

"So if it's Option B, the end of the—" Jack stopped, cleared his throat, and tried again. "If something terrible is coming, how would _John_ have known?"

"Darkness," Ianto murmured.

"What?"

"She's trying to hold back the Darkness," Ianto said. The rest... even I didn't know. Not then.

* * *

"Give me your phone, Sage," John told me when we arrived. He'd teleported us out of the plaza in front of Torchwood Tower without a word, and I was rather surprised to be arriving in an apartment.

"You're going to have to buy me a new one," I told him before handing over my mobile. He smashed it with the butt of his gun before anyone back at the Hub could have a chance to trace its GPS. He handed me my gun and shoulder holster, which I strapped on, then two more handguns that I slung low on my hips, gunslinger-style like John wore his own. I put on my coat and wandered into the main room of the apartment as he was sorting larger guns in a duffel. "This was Owen's flat," I called out to him, recognizing the view of Cardiff Bay and the back of the Millennium Centre.

"Was it?" he said, bringing me two much larger guns. "All I knew was it was vacant."

"These are Preacher rifles," I remarked. "Where did you find these?"

He shrugged. "Jack had them. There's a few more, as well as some gorgeous machine guns that look a bit like the blasters Daleks use. I think these are the ones we'll need, though."

"Why are we here?" I asked him.

"Something's coming," he replied simply, slinging a couple of Preacher rifles over his own shoulders.

"Yes," I said, "but how did you know?"

"I had your dream," John said offhandedly. "These straps are a bit long. Make sure you tighten yours up to a comfortable height. I'm not sure how long a wait we have ahead of us, so it's best if our weapons are ready from now."

"You had my dream," I echoed as my hands worked the straps on auto-pilot. Dad would have been sorry to see how quickly I adapted to each new weapon.

"It wasn't the first time," John told me. "You're the one who drew me to Gallifrey to begin with. You even told me where to land to get past their shielding."

"Did you really give me this on a lark, John?" I asked him, holding up my Vortex Manipulator.

"No," he admitted. "You told me to. I didn't know why; maybe a part of _you_ did, though."

"Why did you take me away from them, Johnny?" I asked him of Ianto and Jack. "I wanted to protect them."

"We will. We have to do it from here, though. From the outside."

"How do you know that?"

"That's what you told me. You didn't explain. The girl, the blonde girl, said 'Bad Wolf'. You said 'It's time.'"

"Time for what?" I pressed.

"To call you by your name. To help you fulfil your purpose. That's all you said, Sage. Should I find a fortune teller to get the rest?" John said, only half joking.

"I know one," I admitted. "If she saw this coming, she never said."

Just then we felt the ground shudder beneath our feet. "Is that an earthquake?" John asked me, but he had the look of a person who knew they were asking a dumb question and couldn't help but ask it anyway.

"More like an earthshock!" I said loudly as the rumbling increased. "Hold on!"

"To what?!" he cried out. There was nothing but us in the flat, after all.

"To me!" I shouted, reaching out my hand. Our guns clattered against each other as I pulled him into my arms. I felt John press his face into the crook of my neck, and I didn't blame him. The floor-to-ceiling windows of the flat cracked and threatened to shatter, but ultimately held as the tremor ceased. "Great Goddess!" I exclaimed in a whisper.

When John looked up, he murmured, "It's night..."

"No, love," I told him. "The sun is gone. Or rather, we've been taken away from it. Look up there. Can you see it? That's Woman Wept. That one over there is Pyrovilia."

"Is that Adipose III?" he asked me, pointing to another planet above our heads.

"I don't know that one, but if you think so then it probably is," I conceded.

"What the hell just happened?" John murmured.

"We've been stolen," I said plainly. "Moved across time and space."

"How? Why? Who could even do that?" he asked me, looking offended even though it wasn't his planet that had been taken, or even mine.

"Someone who's tried it before," I murmured. "Daleks. Give me your guns, quickly!" I told him, pulling my Sonic Penlight from my pocket.

"Which ones?"

"The blasters. Dad boosted some of them for Dalekanium, but I don't know which ones these are." I adjusted the frequency on the rifles, then let loose a string of curses.

"What is it?"

"I miss Tosh. She'd have been able to check the others at the Hub. She knew her sonic modulators," I told him. "And we can't teleport back. They'd trace it."

"Are you sure it's Daleks?" John asked me, giving me the sort of look you give your superior officer when they start to lose control.

"I'm positive. Stop looking at me like I'm losing my grip, John Hart," I said firmly, handing him back his rifles and slinging my own two back over my shoulders. "They're coming for us, and I'm the only Time Lord here. I've got little experience and even less authority, but you and I have got to take a stand. When they head for Torchwood, and they will, we've got to take out as many as we can before they get past their defences."

"And then what?" he asked me, but he was getting that arrogant bring-it-on look I needed.

"If we go down, we go down fighting," I said.

He suddenly pulled me flush against his body and have me a firm, passionate kiss. "I love you, you devil," he hissed. "I never thought I'd be following little Adria to war," he then added, "but now that it's come, I couldn't ask for a better partner."

"I'm glad to have you, too," I said. "Now let's see if we can get a radio signal or something," I told him, fiddling with my wrist strap. "Daleks get pompous when they've got the upper hand. They may give something away." John tilted my chin up gently, looking me in the eye as he kissed me again. "What is it?" I asked him. I'd never seen him look so sad, not even the night Owen and Tosh died.

"I love you, Adria. From the first moment you whispered to me in the dark," he murmured. "I know I've lied to you. More times than I can count, really. But I love you. I always have. No matter what happens, I always will."

"And I love you, John," I admitted to him and to myself. "But I love them, too. I need you to help me save them. Not just Torchwood. As many humans as we can. They're a misguided and foolhardy lot, but I love them."

"You're the most forgiving soul I've ever known, Miss Sage Smith," John remarked. "Try getting that signal. We may survive this yet."


	3. Chapter 3

The Daleks transmitted over television waves. I managed to capture the signal as they were telling all the humans to leave their homes. They said that they were to be "harvested". I had no idea what that was intended to mean. Someone calling himself Dalek Supreme (which John likened, quite wittily, to a fast food meal) was sounding quite pompous indeed. Somewhere behind Dalek Pompous... I heard a Dalek _chuckle_. My mind reeled.

"He's insane," I murmured. "Did you hear that laugh? That Dalek's gone over the high side."

"I'm sorry I doubted you," John apologized with grave sincerity. "When they started off with 'Exterminate!' I thought we were done for, here and now."

"Well, at least this is a tourist area and not entirely residential. They may not see Torchwood as a threat yet, but they will as soon as Jack makes a move against them. Let's go outside. I've got an idea."

"I hope it's a good one. I mean to die fighting, not standing there dumbly with my gun as I get blasted," he said, following me.

"That's why I need to be outside," I attempted to clarify. "Holy Mothers, is that Clom?" I blurted as my eyes scanned the sky. "Who the bloody hell would want _Clom_?"

"Never mind that. What's your idea?"

"We need to stay on the move, right? Make like an army, really, and above all not get shot. Let me see..." I did some calculations in my head, looking across the bay at the Millennium Centre pensively. "Roofs are good. Parked cars. Garbage bins..."

"Garbage bins?" John ventured.

I set my Sonic Penlight and put it to work on my wrist strap. "I've set it to give me an emergency teleportation every fifteen seconds to locations within firing range of Torchwood Tower. We aim, fire, blink away, and never need to use our hands for anything other than guns. Let me set yours." He held out his arm placidly. "Oh, shit, was that UNIT I just heard?" I inquired with a start. "What the blazes is Project Indigo?"

"Sage, that's—"

"Jack. Must have caught his mobile signal somehow," I muttered, pausing to listen. "Martha's down?!? Piss off! She's fine. Damn it," I exclaimed, going back to his wrist strap. "There you go. Better than the Cult of Skaro.

"The what?"

"Never mind."

"Oi! Jack said they were targeting military bases. He said UNIT was next. You heard the gunfire. How do you know Martha's 'fine'? How could anyone be fine in this mess?" John argued.

I laid a hand against his cheek. "Trust me, Johnny. I just know. Come on. We need to move."

"Sage..."

"Just trust me, all right? I need you. Move!"

* * *

"So now we wait?" John whispered to me. I sat cross-legged, John kneeling beside me on the roof of the Millennium Centre.

"Not long now," I whispered back.

"Where would your father be, then?"

"Shadow Proclamation is my guess," I murmured, laying a hand on John's shoulder when he shuddered. "They're the highest authority left. If he hasn't pieced together what's happened to us, he'll have gone to them."

"And what about your Rose?"

"She's here. Well, London. If Dad knew that for certain he'd be trying twice as hard to get here," I told him with a sigh.

"He loves her?" John guessed.

"Yeah. He'd never say it, though, I don't think. He sure as hell never said it to me."

"But he does love you," John told me, brushing my hair back from my face. "It was in his eyes."

"What?" I blurted, but just then we were interrupted by an incoming signal... on _my_ VM, but not on John's. I knew her voice at once, speaking over something she called the Subwave Network. The deposed Prime Minister. Harriet Jones. No one was replying. I considered replying myself, but just then...

"Captain Jack Harkness, shame on you!" she admonished. I'd heard other voices murmuring, including Gwen's and someone called Mr Smith, but it was Jack's downtrodden 'Just leave it' that had snagged her attention and mine. I switched on video.

"It's a bloody conference call!" John hissed. I gestured to him to keep silent.

Harriet Jones reeled in Torchwood, Sarah Jane Smith (a friend of my dad's; I'd seen a photo of her once, when she was young and I but a child), and Rose Tyler. For some reason, though, she couldn't hear Rose even though I could. She said something about the fourth contact having trouble, and suddenly Martha was on the line.

"You're always right, aren't you," John remarked. No one reacted to his voice, so I surmised they couldn't hear us any more than they could hear Rose.

"Who's _she_?" Rose protested.

John snorted. "She's _jealous_!"

"Don't laugh, Johnny," I admonished gently. Rose couldn't hear us either, but at least after John's reaction I knew her voice wasn't only in my head. "Hey! Jack's hitting on Sarah Jane!"

"Well, she _is_ pretty foxy," John put in. I swatted his arm gently. "What's an Osterhagen Key?"

"No idea," I lied. We continued listening as they outlined their plan.

"Ooh. The Doctor's Secret Army. I like _that_."

"_He_ wouldn't," I pointed out. Then Ianto pointed out something even more obvious. That once they used the Subwave Network to... well, call my father, basically... the Daleks would become aware of it. "My sweet boy," I murmured with pride and regret.

"He loves you, too," John told me, startling me. Everyone else was dashing about, combining their efforts to contact my father, and here was John Hart, scourge of several galaxies, reminding me that the man I loved loved me. "I know you love him best," he murmured. "Even more than you love Jack. You may not have realized it, Sage, but he loves you, too. If we save his life today, Sage Smith, regret nothing. Ianto Jones is the best of us all."

I simply gaped at him. Suddenly, though, the Daleks locked onto Harriet Jones' coordinates and she transferred control of the Subwave Network to Torchwood. "That's our cue, Johnny," I told him, standing. "May the God and Goddess bless Harriet Jones." He stood beside me and gave me one final kiss.

"Everyone except Rose," I heard my father say. The rest was mayhem.


	4. Chapter 4

When the Dalek fleet locked on to Torchwood, they hit us hard and fast. John and I flitted about, seemingly at random, and took out at least 50 on our own with the Preacher blaster rifles. Johnny was actually laughing as he shot them, which is probably why he didn't realize until it was nearly too late that he'd depleted the charge, even though I'd switched to distracting the Daleks with bullets myself a full minute prior. I saw the Dalek hovering before him, and another, the last, heading into Torchwood Tower. I didn't pause to think. I teleported. The blast almost caught me in the chest. Almost. Somehow I managed to catch it with my bare hands and deflect it, the Dalek in front of me exploding from the midsection up.

"Adria!" John cried out as I fell backward into his arms with the force of the recoil. We were in an alleyway, just out of range of the Torchwood exterior CCTV, but close enough for me to see that the last Dalek had ignored us in favour of stopping the signal.

"I couldn't stop it," I said tearfully.

"It's up to them, now," he told me gently.

"Not that," I murmured.

"What, then?"

"This," I said, then fainted.

* * *

I woke up with my head in John's lap. He'd been crying. He was holding my TARDIS key in his hand. I could tell he'd worked it out.

"It wasn't deadlocked at all, was it," he said.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered. Magic is supposed to be impossible. My father always said so. But I have no better name for what had surged through my hands, making me able to deflect that blast. Even so, the radiation was slowly poisoning me. There was no stopping it.

"He'll come now, won't he?" John asked me. It was night time, but all the right stars were in the sky. The universe had been put right while I slept.

"He's already here," I told him.

"Adria?"

"Hello, Dad," I said, gazing up at him. He knelt beside me, wiped the tears from my face.

"How did you get here?" he asked me. He meant Earth. Out of the Time War. Life itself.

"I'm not sure. But this helped," I told him, showing him my Vortex Manipulator.

"Are you John? You're another person I never expected to see again. Has she been with you all this time?" Dad asked, squinting and scratching his head.

"I was with Jack," I told him, waiting for his anger, but he smiled instead.

"Always full of surprises. You and him, and this one, too," he voiced rather wistfully.

"Is everyone all right?" I asked him.

"Everyone survived," he evaded.

"Dad..."

"It's a long story, and you don't have much time, Adria. Who in particular are you worried about?"

"Ianto," I admitted. "His name is Ianto Jones."

"Torchwood's Ianto? Time-lock Security Lockdown they said. Sounded brilliant. Anyway, he's fine, Ianto Jones. But I thought he and Jack were..."

"Dad, no lectures. I haven't got time," I reminded him.

"Why isn't she regenerating?" John asked him.

"She can't. They engineered her that way," he said, pressing his stethoscope to my chest.

"Who did?"

"UNIT. A very long time ago. Well, not so long ago to you, but to us... I sort of kidnapped her," he attempted to explain.

"But she _is_ your daughter, isn't she?"

The Doctor nodded. "Part human. They stole our DNA. I've never really trusted them since. I was hoping Martha might improve the—"

"Who was my mother?" I interrupted.

"You didn't notice the resemblance, did you. I tried to tell you, long ago," he said softly.

"Sarah Jane?" I asked him, but I knew even before he nodded.

"She doesn't know. Humans weren't allowed on Gallifrey. I couldn't tell her."

"It's all right, Dad," I told him. "Will it work? Even though I'm half human, I mean."

"Part, not half, and yes. I think so. Let me see your locket." I pulled it from inside my blouse, and he set his sonic screwdriver to it. I was glad he was there. I wouldn't have been able to do it myself. "You'd best say your goodbyes, John," he said gravely.

"She knows I love her. I've told her, haven't I, Sage."

"The _Sage_?" Dad said inquiringly. "I heard about you during the war. You were a troublemaker of the best kind. I never thought they meant _you_."

"What did they say?" I asked him weakly.

"You reminded them of me," he whispered in my ear, then lifted me out of John's arms. I smiled at John, and then the TARDIS doors closed. A few moments later, I died.


	5. Chapter 5

I'm still here. You've been wondering how I knew all the angles of so many things, including things I never saw in the Vortex, haven't you. Particularly since I've freely admitted to being a rather poor specimen as far as Time Lords go. The thing is, I'm made of energy. We all are. There's a trick my Dad told me about once when I was a girl, though. It was something about energy, and I remembered it.

Sometimes, under the right circumstances, a Time Lord who can't (or won't) regenerate can continue to exist as energy in a conscious state. When you see your computer screen flicker or hear static on your phone, that's me. Not always, but usually. I like to travel. I love to read and listen and learn. I travel as particles of light, but what you notice is me leaving. My shadow.

Sometimes I live in the heart of the TARDIS. Usually, though, I'm somewhere on Earth, flitting about. Some might call it "a whole lot of running".

Dad still can't say those three important words. John gave him a hint, but he didn't take it.

What about Torchwood, you wonder? I died in the Battle of Cardiff Bay. It wasn't as big as the one at Canary Wharf; there were only four of us; but that's what John calls it. He tried to tell Jack how it all went down, but Jack decked him the moment he told him I was dead. Ianto followed him out the door, though, and asked for the whole story. John told him everything he knew. Ianto cried at first, but then John showed him something. You can dial me up, like a phone call or a URL, and John taught Ianto the code. Well... actually, Ianto remembered it just from seeing it the once. He's amazing like that. At first he thought it was a trick, that I was a holo-recording, but then he realized I was replying, that I could hear him, and he started laughing through his tears.

He hasn't told Jack. I asked him not to. I wanted them to be able to go back to being a couple without the ghost of me between them. For the most part, it worked. Jack has lost many friends and companions over the years. He says it never gets easier, and he's right. He grieved for me, but then I passed to being a fond memory, just as I should be to him. Ianto sees me as a sort of guardian angel, someone who whispers secrets to him over his comms sometimes, or calls him late at night when he's alone and can't sleep and needs someone to talk to.

Jack is a harder man than Ianto, and he'd have used me, albeit unintentionally. He'd have asked me for favours, and that's not the sort of being I am. I've discovered that I rather like being my own mistress, leaking information when I feel it's the right thing to do and leaving him to his own devices when I feel he can handle things on his own. Sometimes I'm wrong, and if I'm lucky enough to notice in time I tell Ianto. Sometimes I'm not so lucky. _We're_ not so lucky. But we try. We soldier on.

I guided myself here, to this state of being. I travelled to John Hart's youth and fed him dreams of Gallifrey and instructions on how to get there. I told him to find me. I used the last gap in the Time Lock that Dalek Caan had traversed. I created myself as I am, just as Rose once did with the words Bad Wolf. I am a paradox. That's why they affected me so strongly in my physical form. This was always meant to happen. A fixed event. Like the fall of Pompeii. When the Pyrovile lost their planet to time and space, to the Daleks, and they made their new home beneath Mount Vesuvius, they created a problem for my father to solve... and he did. He and Donna. Donna Noble, "just a temp". The Noble Woman. Justice of Time. A woman born to be the keystone of the Universe.

I am Adria. The Darkness and the Light. The girl who escaped the Fall to guard over Planet Earth. This is my destiny. Part of me knew it all along. I live in the shadows. I am part of them. One day I will cease to exist. One day I will fade away. When I have no one left to live for, I will be free to finally die.

Until then, I am Torchwood Officer 000. Defender of the Earth.

And I can see you.

* * *

**[June 1, 2008 – July 6, 2008]**


End file.
